The present invention relates generally to information processing systems and more particularly to a methodology and implementation for relating projected sound effects to computer display characteristics.
As computer systems and applications continue to expand, new functions and capabilities are created and various devices and tools need to be developed to visibly present an interface for such capabilities to system users. The main computer system interface for user-driven computer systems and applications has been the display device along with a user input means such as a keyboard or mouse or trackball device. Other wireless input devices are also available.
Almost all computer system user input devices rely on visual indicia represented on a display screen to enable user input by means of a keyboard, or pointing device such as a mouse trackball or joystick, etc., for example. When a computer system is running a large number of applications, the various applications typically are represented by corresponding icons on the display, or within rectangular frames or windows from which a user can identify the particular program being represented. Further, all of the selectable functional features of any particular program are also represented by a visual indication on the display screen which can be activated by a user to invoke the selected function.
When a user wishes to switch from a current program to another program, the user xe2x80x9cpoints toxe2x80x9d the icon or window of the program on the display screen using the mouse or other pointing device and xe2x80x9cclicks onxe2x80x9d one of the buttons on the pointing device. Thereafter, when the user wishes to invoke a particular function of the application being worked, the user will point to and click on a corresponding visible screen area. With all of the various selectable visual indicia and icons represented on display screens, computer screen can become quite crowded and often it is difficult to determine whether a mouse-controlled pointer is pointing to one selectable area on the screen or another. This is an even greater problem with respect to visually impaired users. When a user points to one selection area and clicks on a mouse to activate a selected function, if the pointer was actually pointing to an unintended neighboring or adjacent screen area when the mouse was clicked, the wrong function will be performed, often with disastrous results. Even in the best case, the user will have to wait for the unintended function to complete before canceling the unintended results and re-activating the intended function. Recently, this problem has been recognized and addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,182, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and included herein by reference. In that patent, an aural signal is provided to indicate a screen distance between a screen position identifier and a location of interest on the display screen. While this represents a major accomplishment in providing aural assistance in screen navigation, even further efforts are needed in this field to provide greater ease and facility in operating display screen-driven programs, including Internet applications, especially for visually impaired computer users.
A method and implementing computer system is provided in which sounds are projected in space surrounding a computer system to provide information concerning various aspects of information displayed on the computer system display screen. Predetermined information relative to the displayed information is rendered in projected sound and is perceived to emanate from points away from the computer system. By perceiving certain characteristics of the projected sounds including the perceived location of the apparent source of the projected sounds relative to a designated point of origin such a user""s head or the computer display screen, certain characteristics of the images displayed on the display screen can be ascertained.